A café owner has had his alcohol licence suspended after admitting to buying a bottle of vodka from a ‘street seller’ for £10.

The Fenland Citizen reported that the police had requested the review following breaches of a number of conditions of the licence including one that specifically states: “No alcoholic drinks will be purchased by the store owners or staff from sellers calling at the store.”

It is reported that the committee made its decision at an hour-long meeting at Fenland Hall where members heard evidence from both the council’s licensing officer, Andy Fox, and PC Paul Hawkins, representing Cambridgeshire Police, who had asked for Mr Almeida’s licence to be reviewed.

In it, and while under caution, Mr Almeida is seen admitted to buying the vodka worth £22.99 for £10 saying he had bought it from a regular customer.

It transpired the vodka had been purchased using a stolen debit card taken from another premises in the town.

However, despite one of the other conditions of his licence being to have a fully-functioning CCTV system in the café, there was no footage of the purchase as it was discovered Mr Almeida did not know how it worked.

The hearing heard the person who sold the vodka has not been identified, and therefore has not been caught.

Mr Fox told the meeting: “Mr Almeida was asked to demonstrate to the officers the CCTV footage for May 10, 2024 - he advised he was unable to operate the system and called a friend, who attended, and it was established that the footage could not be played back and that nothing appeared to be stored on the hard drive.”

Mr Almeida was represented by Raymond Pearson, a business consultant, who had supported him in his original application for the licence and in setting up his.

Mr Pearson, who spoke on behalf of Mr Almeida, at the hearing said they had since called in experts to install a new CCTV system and all staff had been trained in how to use it, so footage would now always be immediately available.

He said he had also explained to Mr Almeida that he was not to buy alcohol from anywhere other than a legitimate outlet, and he had also had the licensing conditions translated into Portuguese to ensure he understood them fully.

Mr Pearson said that since the incident, and the new regime, there had been no further breaches.